I (heart) New York - the Real New York

It hit me today.

Vancouver is just a pretty face. Nothing more.

New York, on the other hand, oh New York - has multiple, grimy, sweaty, scary, fascinating layers that you keep on peeling and peeling and peeling.

I've been back for 2 hours now, and I'm already ready to go home.

Miss you NYC

Reading Luka

Given my blog's name, and the inspiration I've received from Salman Rushdie over the past decade or so, it behooves me to offer my opinion of his new book, and the sequel to one of my favourite books of all time, Luka and the Fire of Life.

I haven't finished the book but, it seems to me, that the book is a lament of sorts for a world of storytelling gone by, for a particular world of magic that doesn't necessarily exist in this, as Soraya calls it in the book, universe of "High Definitions and low expectations." "One of these days," she says, "you'll wake up and we'll be gone, and then you'll find out what it's like to live without even the idea of Magic. But Time moves on, and there isn't a thing we can do about it."

Sad. I hope Sir Salman keeps on writing. Luka is nowhere near as great as his other works (so far), but it definitely has the mark of his genius on it.

Now, back to reading.

Edit: 1230am. And the dog named Bear sings my favourite George Harrison song. Beatles ftw!

N(erd)abz

I've finished my research and am finally writing my term paper, and it's making me oh-so-very-happy. There's something about words and the use of words that makes me trill with joy. Just a few moments ago, I realized that I could use the word 'insouciance.' It made me so happy I shivered with joy once I saw it appear on my screen.

Wordgasm?

Back to papering. Oh. I missed it...

A Word of Advice

Having spent the Summer eating mangoes daily and constantly, there are times when I crave the succulent fruit. (Ah! To have a fresh dussehri or sapeda lakhnavi!) More often than not, I don't have the time to go down to Murray/Curry Hill and buy bottles of Maaza or Fruiti and have to spend my time dreaming of the wonderful juice.

I was in my local market today and happened upon dried mango. I bought them and brought them with me to the library. I just opened the container, had one and must say it's one of the most dreadful fruit products I've ever had. It tastes Nothing like mango.

Please, never buy them. Unless they're guaranteed to taste like the real thing.

Sincerely,

Disappointed Me

Writing Papers, Nabz-style

A couple of things on the agenda tonight:

1) Annoyance with myself. As I said earlier tonight - sometimes I wish I studied something happier, like the psychological impact of teddy bears on babies. But noooo, I go and decide I want to study crazy, zealous, evil Hindu Nationalists and Partition; and riot production and Muslim sup/re/op/pression in Gujarat. Way to go EnPi.

2) Alcohol deprived, thanks to a no-whiskey-until-Jan-First-diet, which was supposed to be a no-hard-liquor-until-said-date diet, but that was broken one glorious night with a friend from home at the bar around the corner. It has wonderful dirty martinis (Grey Goose, 3 olives - usually stuffed with gorgonzola but sadly plain that night). The bar-tender called me a 'celebrity' for texting away on my phone and wearing my plaid purple peaked hat that I love oh-so-much, and then asked my friend and me to do a tequila shot with him. How could I have refused? The tequila was certainly amazing though - the dude knows his alcohol. So smooth you barely needed the lime.

Anyway. Tonight. Researching Gujarat and drinking vodka/red bull. Yummy! And a definite step up (it's all about the upward mobilization folks) from the ice wine of last night (although, that was quite delicious in itself - yay Niagara!)

3) Focalizing. Who the hell uses the word 'focalizing.' A case of bad English - what some would call 'Indian English,' but what, like my thesis supervisor, I abhor.

ps: that's such a beautiful word - abhor.

I like words.

[Edit: 12:43am. Same author - 'lumpenising'. WTF!]

[Edit: 1:29am. Another author - and Apparently Gandhi was assassinated on 31 January! Seriously? Seriously? 30 January folks. I should know. EPW, you should be ashamed of yourself for letting that one slip. Just goes to show how 'revered' the ol'e Mahatma is in India-land.]

[Edit: 2:44am. The Red Bull certainly did its job. It's almost 3am and I'm wide awake. That being said, I've probably now also consumed about 5 shots worth of vodka. You'd think the Gujjus would make more sense when you're a tad tipsy - apparently not. Mazel Tov folks. It's bed time. See you in the morning/a couple of hours.]

Note To Self (and to you...)

If you want to drink a bottle of wine, do not try and drink a bottle of ice wine (however delicious it may be). It's just.too.sweet!

I feel sick...

And I didn't even finish the bottle

Shucks